Case studies

Roseda is a family-operated business that had its beginnings in a farm that Ed and his wife purchased before his retirement in 1994. The company’s current business strategy emphasizes producing high-quality natural Black Angus beef without using hormones, chemical additives or antibiotics in cattle feeding and by dry aging the carcasses for enhanced flavor. This case focuses on the alternative growth strategies that Ed Burchell confronts for Roseda in early 2015.

The founder of Roseda Beef and the lead author became acquainted many years ago. In 2014, the two owners of Roseda agreed to have a case written about the firm. The case is based on formal interviews, on site observations at Roseda Farms, and an extensive review of the documentation that exists on this privately held company. In addition, the company made some internal documents available including the income statements and balance sheets for this private company.

This course has been taught four times at the MBA level so far: twice in a strategic management course, and twice in a financial strategy course.

Roseda Beef was developed to provide students in a capstone strategy or finance course the opportunity to undertake a situational analysis including the firm’s summary financials and the rudimentary financial analysis of the expansion opportunities that are included in the case. The case is based on capital budgeting principles in finance and fundamentals of strategy development.

Read any news report on the housing market, and inevitably it will include facts or figures from the real estate data giant Zillow.com. The company initially set out to solve two key economic frictions in the real estate industry information asymmetry and the principal-agent problem by empowering users to access real-time housing data and eliminating the need for realtors. The company soon realized, however, that American homeowners and buyers were not willing to give up the traditional real estate agent model and changed course. In the end, Zillow decided to join rather than replace the middlemen in the real estate industry.

Describes the career transfer and development system at UPS, showing incentives and policies that move managers across countries and functions, and how this movement develops high quality general managers.

To demonstrate the way in which a cross-functional, cross-cultural career transfer program can break down silo and national barriers and achieve cost effective integration.

The managing director of a steel plant faces the decision of how much of each raw material to order for the plant for the following month. Due to lower and upper bounds on the amounts of each raw material in a batch and varying amounts of electricity and time consumed for different raw materials, one can't simply use the cheapest raw material. A linear program and the solver optimization function of Excel will provide the optimal amounts that meet the constraints. Interestingly, the best mixture for a batch is not the best mixture for a monthly plan. Shadow prices indicate the value of relaxing constraints. The typical monthly model from a student will be nonlinear, although it can be written as a linear model. This case provides the basis for an introductory class on linear programming and linear versus nonlinear models.

This case explores the decision of a fast-growing company to expand its distribution network. Financial information is provided in it so students can understand the basic distribution network design covering inbound transportation, outbound transportation, distribution-center operations, and inventory.

This exercise is one in a series intended to help students learn how to perform financial calculations in marketing contexts.

Helmut Schmidt, product manager for Hohner Musikinstrumente GmbH & Co. KG, the world's foremost manufacturer of harmonicas, accordions, melodicas, and ukuleles, was sitting at his desk reviewing his first assignment from the company's senior executive team. Schmidt had been asked to calculate the break-even point for the company's flagship product, the Marine Band harmonica, under a number of different scenarios.

After completing the exercise, students should be able to:

• Calculate unit contribution and margin

• Calculate break-even units and market share

Calculate unit contribution and margin

Calculate break-even units and market share

This exercise is one in a series intended to help students learn how to perform financial calculations in marketing contexts.

Kookaburra, a maker of cricket equipment popular in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and India, was considering two strategies for positioning a new cricket bat in India. Both strategies would cannibalize current sales, and Lulu Popplewell, category manager responsible for the Indian market, needed to calculate the financial impact of both to determine which one she would recommend.

This exercise poses a fictional problem about branding strategy on a new product, and asks students to consider the financial impact of different branding strategies and cannibalization rates.

After completing the exercise, students should be able to:

• Calculate the impact of cannibalization on units and profit for a new product launch

• Determine break-even cannibalization rates

• Understand how different branding decisions may impact the degree of cannibalization they should expect from a new product launch

Calculate the impact of cannibalization on units and profit for a new product launch

Determine break-even cannibalization rates

Understand how different branding decisions may impact the degree of cannibalization they should expect from a new product launch